Embodied Ways of Knowing: Women’s Eco-Activism by
Lisa Mortimore
BA, Simon Fraser University, 1993 MA, University of Victoria, 2004 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in the Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies
Lisa Mortimore, 2013 University of Victoria
All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author.
Embodied Ways of Knowing: Women’s Eco-Activism by
Lisa Mortimore
BA, Simon Fraser University, 1993 MA, University of Victoria, 2004
Supervisory Committee
Dr. Darlene E. Clover (Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies) Supervisor
Dr. Catherine McGregor, (Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies)
Departmental Member
Dr. Budd Hall, (School of Public Administration) Outside Member
Dr. Leslie Brown (School of Social Work) Outside Member
Dr. Darlene E. Clover, (Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies) Supervisor
Dr. Catherine McGregor, (Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies)
Departmental Member
Dr. Budd Hall, (School of Public Administration) Outside Member
Dr. Leslie Brown, (School of Social Work) Outside Member
Traditional knowledges and ways of living in harmony with the Earth and among species have been disregarded, discarded, and destroyed as industrialisation, capitalism, and globalisation have pervaded, all maintained in part by the Cartesian split which dissociates body from mind, heaven from Earth, nature from culture. These hegemonic layers of control have served to bind the fate of the Earth’s eco-systems, including human life, to the global capital economy which thrives on growth and development at any and all costs.
This feminist, arts-informed inquiry brought an embodied lens to the stories of eco-activism and inquired as to the role of embodied ways of knowing and their role in eco-activism and the toll of activism upon women eco-activist bodies. This research inquiry interviewed thirteen women eco-activists, conducted four art-making focus groups, and used embodied reflexivity as part of the analysis process in order to find new understandings and knowledge to add to the limited literature on embodiment, embodied ways of knowing, and women’s eco-activism. Furthermore, this research sought to identify and articulate the ways in which activism practice can be more sustainable for
consciousness for activists, educators, and others working towards social change. The key findings of this research indicate that embodied knowledges counter fragmented ways of living, foster sustainable practices, and offer guidance and direction to live more harmoniously with, and on, the Earth and to practice activism. It also expands our understanding of women’s embodied ways of knowing and illuminates our understandings of how bodies can guide and show alternate ways of living, and practising activism, that are sustainable. This inquiry further added to the growing awareness of body/mind connection and unity consciousness with a focus on activists, educators, and others interested in finding ways to live with, rather than on, the Earth.
Supervisory Committee ... ii Abstract ... iii Table of Contents ... v List of Tables ... ix List of Figures ... x Acknowledgements ... xi Dedication ... xii
CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION The Entry Point ... 1
Some Background and Self Location ... 2
Statement of the Problem ... 5
Purpose and Objectives of the Study ... 7
Literature Review... 8
Methodology ... 10
Significance of the Study ... 11
How to Engage with this Work ... 12
CHAPTER TWO – THE CONTEXTS The Ecological Context... 14
The Present Day Context ... 15
Historical Context ... 17
The Political Context ... 20
The Sociocultural Context ... 22
The Psychological Context ... 23
CHAPTER THREE – EMBODIMENT AND EMBODIED WAYS OF KNOWING Embodiment and Embodied Ways of Knowing ... 28
The Emergence of Western Knowledge Practices of Duality ... 28
Embodiment ... 31
Feminisms and Embodiment: The Body Re-membered ... 32
Dimensions of Embodiment……….. 34
The body as biological organism………..… 35
The phenomenological body ... 37
The ecological body……….. 38
The relational body………...…… 40
The cultural body ………..41
The psychospiritual body ... 42
Embodiment and the Undivided Body ... 44
Embodied Learning ... 46
The Body in Education ... 48
Embodied Ways of Knowing: Epistemological Sites ... 50
The Body as Site of Knowledge ... 53
CHAPTER FOUR - ACTIVISM
Activism ... 64
Activism ... 64
What is Activism? ... 65
What does Activism Look Like? ... 66
Activism and the Body... 70
Activism and Embodiment ... 73
Ecoactivism and Spirituality ... 74
Studies linking Activism and the Body ... 76
Conclusion ... 80
CHAPTER FIVE – METHODOLOGY AND METHODS Framing the Context for My Research ... 82
Ontological Location ... 83
Epistemological Location ... 84
The Question of Gender ... 85
Methodological Frameworks ... 85
Feminist Research ... 87
Arts Informed Inquiry ... 89
Research Design... 92
Participant Recruitment ... 92
Data Collection ... 93
The focus groups – art-making… ... 95
Why prayer flags………. 96
The Role of the Researcher ... 98
Power ... 99 Reflexivity... 100 Embodied reflexivity ... 101 Validity ... 102 Data Analysis ... 103 Representation... 106
CHAPTER SIX - ANALYSIS Analysis ………...…108
Connection as Integral Force ... 109
Connection to/Relationships with the Earth……… ... 110
Somatic connection ... 114
Earth as haven ... 115
Interconnectivity ... 116
Recognition of self as Earth..………..……….… . 120
Communities of Connection: A Necessity………..… .. 122
Support ... 122
Strain and Conflicts... 123
Listening From the Inside ... 129
The Earth Speaks ... 129
Energy ... 131
My Body Speaks ... 133
Heart and gut ... 133
My voice ... 134
. Dreaming... 135
Unity consciousness………. 136
Effect upon the body……… 136
Health benefits ... ……….137
Physical costs ... 137
Emotional costs ... 140
. CHAPTER SEVEN - ANALYSIS Analysis... 143
Activism—Action to Orientation—A Way of Being………..… 143
Answering the Call……….. . 144
The internal pull……….. ... 146
Eco-activism is an Orientation ... 147
Activist – the label……….. .... 149
Personal Journey of Consciousness ... 150
Anger – coming to a different place ... 152
Putting my body on the line……… ... 154
Activism as Spiritual Practice………. .. 155
The Ebb and Flow ... 158
Sustainability………. 158
Spiritual Nourishment ... 161
Practices that sustain ... 162
Personal connection ... 163
Finding your rhythm ... 164
Embodiment and Barriers to it ... 165
Visions of a different world ... 168
Conclusion ... 170
CHAPTER EIGHT - DISCUSSION Discussion ... 171
Embodiment: An Amorphous Concept………... 173
Activism Requires a New Understanding or Definition……….. 175
Embodied Ways of Knowing……….. 176
The Body as Site of Knowledge………. ... 176
The Primacy of Relationship with the Earth in Eco-Activism………... ... 179
Earth as Site of Knowledge………... ... 182
Implications of Embodied Knowledges……… .... 184
Embodied Knowledges and Activism………. 185
Spirituality and Unity Consciousness ... 192
Activism and Spiritual Practice ... 195
Activism: A Way of Life………. 198
Identity as Activist………... ... 198
The Challenge of Anger .. ………..199
Activist Communities………..… . 202
CHAPTER NINE - CONCLUSIONS Conclusion ... 205
My Experience as Researcher……..……… 205
Inviting Art into the Research……….. 207
Challenges as the Researcher…..……… ... 208
For the Reader………..……… 220
References………..……….. 221
Table 1 – Search of Research Articles………....77 Table 2 – Themes, Subthemes, and Categories……….106
Henri ... 105
Kate’s Prayer Flag ... 112
Jacquie’s Prayer Flag ... 113
Kelly’s Prayer Flag ... 117
Suzy’s Prayer Flag ... 118
Trish’s Prayer Flag ... 118
Lana Marie’s Prayer Flag ... 119
K. Linda’s Prayer Flag ... 132
Zoe’s Prayer Flag ... 136
Claudette’s Prayer Flag ... 145
Doran’s Prayer Flag ... 151
Fran’s Prayer Flag ... 159
Claudia’s Prayer Flag ... 150
Lisa’s Prayer Flag 2nd focus group ... 206
When silence springs forth from the fire it cannot be broken………..207
Lisa’s Prayer Flag 3rd focus group ... 215
Lisa’s Prayer Flag 4th focus group ... 215
I am deeply grateful for the abundance of support I have in my life. I feel deeply held by my community that expands far beyond humans to the eco-systems that
support and inspire my work and life.
First and foremost I want to acknowledge the amazing women in this study who not only shared themselves with me but most importantly have offered themselves in
service of our world – our precious planet, species, and landscapes. To you, I will always be grateful for your work, your support, and your inspiration.
Secondly I want to express my heartfelt appreciation of Dr. Darlene Clover, my supervisor, who opened the door and mentored me throughout the process. Her wisdom,
advice, sense of humour, and belief in me and this work were invaluable in keeping the door open and the process flowing.
Dr. Budd Hall for your encouragement, kindheartedness, and wisdom you freely shared. Dr. Leslie Brown for your great questions, thoughtful curiosity, and willingness to deeply
engage with the material and process.
Dr. Catherine McGregor for your gracious kindness and keen mind.
I also want to extend a heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Sharon Stanley and Dr. Norah Trace who have both mentored and opened my conceptual and lived experience
of conscious embodiment and embodied ways of knowing.
Friends who cheered me on and on and on! I particularly want to acknowledge Catherine and Murray for their encouragement and advice.
My family who believe in me and are supportive of whatever new endeavour I embark on.
Finally, I want to recognise Stacy, my beloved, who graciously listened, edited, talked about, and held my hand so to speak throughout this process. You are one of a kind. And I mustn’t forget Henri, my feline muse, who hung in there when the going got rough,
always listening, never interrupting and occasionally typing a few words as he walked across my laptop to get my attention.
This dissertation is dedicated to all those who work on behalf of the Earth and all her species. May you fall deeply into the wisdom of your body
CHAPTER ONE
The Entry Point
This worked called me – I felt it in my bones, it stirred me deeply – my body guided me to and through the work. It began long before I started my doctoral work…in February of 2006 I was invited with two colleagues to Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories to teach a trauma
resolution workshop. Having never been to the North I was struck by many things – most
notably the apparent intactness of the culture and connection to the land of the Indigenous people despite the colonisation and extermination policies and practices utilised in residential schools. I was also struck by the undeniable power of the land – how my body dropped, as if the land helped hold not only my own suffering but the suffering of the people I was with. By my body
dropped, I don’t mean that I collapsed, rather I felt a slowing and expanding of my inner self, the way my body regulated, the way I stood in myself and the ways in which I was in connection with those around me. I felt changed by the land, supported by it, in ways that I had never experienced.
My curiosity was peaked. What was the link between a deep connection to the land and resiliency? How did that connection impact embodiment? What were the links between the sacred, land, and embodiment? I was looking for answers but at the time I found it hard to form the questions…I could feel them in my body yet they were not ready to be articulated. I
followed this felt sense, it was an inkling of a knowing…I could feel a pull and I began putting pieces together. During this time I was in contact with Dr. Darlene Clover who encouraged me to do my doctorate with her in leadership studies. To consider moving departments from
proliferation of dualities in educational and professional disciplines. I struggled to trust this move into an expanded interdisciplinary view, and feared that this expansion would alienate me from colleagues in my professional life. My initial work was to drop deep into my own knowing and to be willing to stand in what I believe – I couldn’t afford to care that within my field or the fractured world this choice was not understood if I were to lead or move forward from a place of embodied integrity. For me, I found that place by dropping into my own knowing, not only of my own knowing, but by trusting the relationship of Darlene Clover who had been open hearted and encouraging from the beginning. Having taken the leap, grateful for the opportunity and support, I have been graced with having the space to explore, link, and expand my understanding and to articulate the ways in which embodied ways of knowing counteract the fragmented self and world. In doing so I believe that it made one small stand toward my own integrated approach to living and in building a bridge between individual and collective healing oft delineated in academia.
Some Background and Self Location
As a white, middleclass, straight woman I have been afforded much privilege throughout my life. In my twenties and early thirties I worked in multiple non-profit agencies: I was keenly aware of the "costs" associated with doing front line crisis and counselling work and taking action towards changing the status quo. I myself had seen, felt, and witnessed despair, rage, isolation, heartache, and triumph. I knew and saw great women burn themselves out over and over again. I witnessed this unchecked drive, or as I would now name it, disembodied activism, create issues in their bodies and interpersonal lives.
In 2002 I began training as a somatic therapist and began my own long journey of
becoming embodied and living with a non-dualistic consciousness. This work continues to date. As a body oriented psychotherapist, educator, and social activist I continued to have first-hand experiences and to witness many challenges which activists experience through their activism, at this point with a new lens – embodiment. I came to believe that much activist, leadership, and educational work often lacks the personal embodiment, awareness, or action imperative for ethical and sustainable practices towards the self, as exemplified in experiences of burnout, compassion fatigue, isolation, and despair. In looking to the literature I could find nothing that addressed these concerns. I delved into more mainstream authors such as Starhawk, Joanna Macy, and Paul Hawken and continued to make connections from my own experience and my experience as a psychotherapist; I also started delving into writings of Jungian scholars through the Spring Journal of Archetype and Culture edited by Nancy Cater. I was inspired. I came to be curious about how embodiment was linked to ways of knowing through connection to the body, Earth1, and spirit, and how these ways of knowing offer support and guidance for care and action. This led me to this research – to explore how the body guides women’s eco-activism and how the body is affected by activism. More specifically, I looked at how 13 women eco-activists used their bodies to access embodied ways of knowing or embodied epistemological sites to support and guide them in their activism and self-sustainability.
During this time I have had the good fortune of being invited to different communities to work. I continue to feel welcomed and supported by different lands and have received great teachings from the participants about how their connection to the land and Earth supports them. Most notably I have been to the mountains in Kaslo, BC which held our work so deeply and firmly that I felt called to do part of the research in the Nelson area. I felt called and followed
that inkling by interviewing four women who lived there individually and then by returning months later to meet with them and carry out an arts-informed focus group. I make my home on Coast Salish territory in Victoria, BC. Throughout this time, the land and ocean has remained a faithful supporter of me. I carried out the remainder of my research in Victoria or in the
surrounding area, interviewing nine more women and holding three additional arts-informed focus groups.
By inquiring with women eco-activists about how the body informs, affects, and is affected through their activism, this study is able to offer some insight towards social and ecological transformation and increased sustainability for eco-activists and all of life, as “social justice cannot be achieved apart from the well-being of the Earth; our fates are intertwined” (Mack-Canty, 2004, p. 169). Further, this study gives voice to embodied ways of knowing that have the potential to counteract the fractured ways in which we understand and carry out living.
In reflecting on the past six years I see that I entered into the programme knowing that it would companion me as I came to understand what it is to lead from the inside out. The gifts that have fostered that along the way have been plentiful, most notably the awareness of just how deeply dualistic frameworks are embedded in my psyche and how utterly colonised I am. The paradox is that this awareness is comfortable, as in familiar, and it is incredibly uncomfortable. Merely my choice to do a PhD with the hopes of decolonising myself is absurd as I sit with it now. It is not unlike engaging in war to establish peace. Yet, shift has happened, and continues, as I am here and writing with the knowing that the journey is not over for in every moment it begins.
Statement of the Problem
Many scholars argue that we live in a fragmented world (Bai & Scutt, 2009; McGilchrist, 2009; Tacey, 2010; Ray, 2008). Long before you and I were born, the ways in which we live with, and on, the world were fractured. We are born into this way of being and it has become woven into the contextual landscape of our lives, both within and outside of us: Who we are, how we live, and the choices we make are not inseparable from the sociocultural and political arenas in which we exist. I believe it is the fracturing of life that is the problem in the
industrialised world of the twenty-first century; a global market that supports capitalism, abuses of power, and exploitation. In Canada and in the United States capitalism is at the very core of our fragmented ways of life creating ongoing local and global issues visible in areas of health and healthcare, poverty, war and human rights, the criminal justice system, education and
credentialing, and environmental concerns: Merchant (2005) claims “The global ecological crisis is exacerbated by the globalization of capitalism” (p. 30). The current and worsening ecological crisis is merely one of many symptoms that illuminate the destructive nature of this fractured life and our collective crisis of consciousness: “The so-called environmental crisis is actually
misnamed….It is not a crisis that begins with the environment, but one that begins with human consciousness” (Tacey, 2010, p. 335).
There are overwhelmingly vivid expressions of ecological destruction and suffering resulting both directly and indirectly from the fractured ways inherent in first world living. While there is widespread disagreement amongst scholars and scientists within the
environmental field, many believe that telltale signs are abundant and forewarn of what is to come if new, radical ways of being and knowing are not adopted (Hawken, 2007; Macy, 2007; Orr, 2009a; and Suzuki, 2007). O’Keeffe (2010) suggests that as the state of the Earth continues
to deteriorate, humans, individually and collectively, are being called upon to vision or re-imagine our relationship and how we live in and on the Earth. Different ways of knowing and being that have been silenced and excluded by “the power regimes that currently organize our world” (personal communication, Leslie Brown March 11, 2013) are needed to make the radical shifts necessary to alter the trajectory of environmental destruction and the impending fall-out. More and more, people are responding to, and engaging in, activism towards sustainability and changing individual behaviours (Clover, 2002). World-wide, women are engaging in
environmental justice (Barry, 2008), but despite this, environmental issues continue to increase (Clover, 2002) and there exists expanding uncertainty as we traverse this unknown territory. The current dominant global ideological agenda cannot be underestimated: Issues of environmental degradation are political and are enabled by governmental support and corporate issues (Clover, 2002). In the current epoch of “neo-liberal governments and global economic forces,
environmental and social justice movements are increasingly challenged to tackle the structures underpinning social inequality and environmental degradation” (Gardner, 2005, p. 4). Yet, individualistic solutions and behaviour changes such as "reduce, reuse, and recycle" are touted as the solution – despite their insufficiencies (Clover, 2002). In actuality, there “is little insight into long-term solutions” (Bondar, 1999, p. 11). O’Keeffe (2010) problematises problem solving processes whereby “Solutions are tailored to fit within the dominant economic system: the current paradigm, not a re-imagined one, that shapes virtually all decisions” (p. 62).
The intersectionality of the subjugation and domination of women, nature, and the body continue to be unabated despite (eco)feminist and other social movements of the past four decades. These connections have been used by the Western patriarchal paradigm to justify the
objectification and devaluation of women and nature and to invalidate environmental and women’s concerns (Gardner, 2005).
In looking to the literature there are ample articles on embodiment, activism, and spirituality, however, there are no studies that directly look at how activists use their bodies to inform their activism. This study asked women eco-activists about their bodies in the context of their activism – how do their bodies inform them and how are they affected – in the hopes of finding some ways of embodied being and knowing that might offer glimpses of a path to support us through this mess we find ourselves in and challenged to take responsibility for. This study looks at embodied knowledges as a counter to fractured ways of knowing – and holds the question of what promise might this offer. This study is by no means the answer to the world’s problems – in fact, in my estimation the search for a solution only contributes to the problem, as problems are often broken into pieces and fragmented from the whole which is in essence the predicament we find ourselves in today. This predicament begs the questions: how did we end
up here? what is maintaining the predicament? and how do we get out of this mess?
Purpose and Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this inquiry was to explore how embodied ways of knowing support women eco-activists in their activism. I was also interested in how women’s eco-activist bodies were affected by activism and the implications of this. Using a feminist approach that included arts-informed creative process focus group sessions and individual interviews, I worked with women to inquire into the role of the body, the concept of embodiment, issues surrounding sustainability of self, embodiment and embodied ways of knowing, and the impact of activism for thirteen women eco-activists. The research question that guided this study was: What role
does the body have in women’s eco-activism and what are the effects of eco-activism on the body?
Literature Review
The literature review begins in chapter two, providing the context and analytical
framework for this inquiry. In order to respond adequately, one has to consider the contexts: the historical, the socio-cultural, the political, and the psychological. Chapter two does this. I outline the historical context that laid the foundation for these current-day contexts to flourish. Namely, the rise and dominance of rational reasoning based in dominant left brain thinking that came about in the era of Enlightenment. The imbalance in the way in which we utilise our brain, as McGilchrist (2009) calls it, paved the way for disembodied and fractured ways of thinking, skewed perceptions of the world, and ultimately, of living. From this dualistic starting point, understandings of the world such as mind/body; man/woman; human/nature were established and allowed for control over that which was subordinate – body, woman, and nature.
Next, I look at the political context and ask who does this serve and how does this context remain powerful? I speak to the rise of capitalism and expansion into corporate capitalism and globalisation as the political context that further forges and maintains duality thinking, fractured living, and harken to neoliberal ideology as the totalising framework of the West.
The sociocultural context is explored next with the questions of how and why has this container been created and what purpose does it serve. Considerations such as epistemologies of ignorance (Pascale, 2010) based in dualistic frameworks that sever our awareness of the
interconnectivity of life and the supremacy of the rational mind are examined as part of the context that maintains fractured living.
Lastly, I outline the psychological context in which we live. What is it about humans, how we think, what we believe, and the ways in which we live, that continue to be hazardous to our health and the health of the planet and all life forms? This section explores the fractured ways of living which are predominant in the West in terms of technology, consumerism, and disconnection to ourselves, others, and the Earth, as the context that keeps us in want of more, unable to find peace or fill the insatiable need bequeathed to the masses via disconnection, disembodiment, and fractured living and fulfilled day-to-day by the machines of globalisation. This sets the context to look at the overview of the problem – the problem not being the
ecological crisis, as this is but a symptom of the meta problem of how we live in relationship, what drives us, what are the rationale and the ramifications of this way of life, and how do we make sense of this ecological problem which is symptomatic of the fractured ways in which we exist. Chapter three offers theoretical areas to provide the framework for this study of
embodiment and embodied ways of knowing. Within chapter three I cover embodiment,
feminism and embodiment, dimensions of embodiment, the undivided body, embodied learning, embodiment in education, and embodied ways of knowing. These embodied ways of knowing, a more nuanced understanding and praxis of the body as a starting point and conduit for
subjugated knowledges, are explored, including the body as a site of knowledge, Earth as a site of knowledge, and spiritual epistemological sites. Chapter three delves into the ways in which embodied knowings can avail underutilised avenues of exploration, awareness, and guidance to create new possibilities in ways of living with, and on, the Earth. It highlights the marginalised location of embodied knowledge not only in everyday living in the West but in education, including academia. As subjugated sites of knowledge, the body, Earth, and spirit are rendered
silent in the ongoing manufacturing of life where the rational, logical left hemisphere of the brain runs rough-shod over the wide lens, visionary functioning of the right hemisphere.
Chapter four is dedicated to activism. In this chapter I explore what activism is, what activism looks like, activism and the body, activism and embodiment, eco-activism and spirituality, and studies linking activism and the body. In essence, this chapter explores an expanded view of activism and speaks to the significant role the body plays in activist practice. Finally, I offer a short conclusion that links the three chapters that make up the literature review.
Methodology
I used a feminist arts-informed inquiry as the methodological framework for this study. Feminist research brings women’s experiences and voices into the forefront (Andrews, 2002), builds oppositional knowledge (Crawford & Kimmel, 1999; Hesse-Biber & Brooks, 2007), and advocates for social change (Apodaca, 2009; Hesse-Biber & Brooks, 2007; Pillow, 2003). Arts- informed research has important social action elements and seeks to showcase marginalised voices and build oppositional knowledge. Art and feminist approaches can be critical to the process of creating oppositional knowledges and “surfacing ways of knowing and constructing meaning for social change” (McKenzie, 2005, p. 23).
I collected data using two sources. The first was individual interviews. The second was focus groups where we made prayer flags. To carry out analysis, I engaged with the material on a number of levels. Integral to this work was the use of embodied reflexivity, practices of embodiment, art, and meditation as methods to analyse the data.
Significance of the Study
This research generated extensive exploration of the body as a tool of cultural and social discourses (e.g., Butler, 1993; Foucault, 1980), the body as a site of knowledge (e.g., Chapman, 1998; Ray, 2008; Wilson, 2004), women’s ways of knowing (e.g. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986) and the body as the sacred gate to spiritual life (Ray, 2008). This study offers some insights into ways that the body and embodiment can avail epistemological sites or
embodied ways of knowing and offer potential direction back to a place of guidance and balance for activists and people in general. Further, this inquiry contributes to the research on activism, embodied ways of knowing, and embodiment which has been absent in the field.
The purpose of this study was to elicit some understanding of how women’s bodies affect and are affected through their eco-activism. A further purpose was to illuminate if and how activists are currently using the wisdom of their bodies and the Earth to make their activism practice more sustainable. This is significant in that gaining insight and understanding into personal experiences of activists is critical in several ways: exploring the often private stories of how women respond to the “risks and challenges” of engaged eco-activism and maintain
commitment through time (Gaarder, 2008, p. 2); as well as by gaining an understanding of the ways in which embodied ways of knowing guide and protect women in their activist practices. Furthermore, Hall (2009) indicates that from his perspective “the very core of social and cultural transformation” (p. 67) happens via the creation of new knowledges in social movements and “ripples” outwards “to those of us who are not part of the movements, to those in the academy looking for more reliant ways of explaining things and eventually to the changing of institutional behaviours” (p. 67).
This study is political in nature, particularly in the context of academia, as it invites the reader to engage with the material through their sensing, live bodies not merely their minds. This is political in that to engage in embodied knowing is a political act of resistance to the dominant discourses of pedagogy and learning (Gustafson, 1998). It is significant in that it invites the reader to move into a more embodied state and engage with, and value other ways of knowing which is counter to the norm of academic work and daily life. Further, this study is political in nature as it reclaims marginalised knowledges “away from the binary
conceptualizations fostered under existing research paradigms" (Brown & Strega, 2005, p. 11).
How to Engage with this Work
In January 2011 one of my committee members asked me how they were to evaluate my work. My reply was along the lines of, "let it resonate in your body," to which she followed up with “you’ll have to teach me.” This has been with me ever since…not haunting me per say but it has been a consistent companion. This invitation to “teach me” illuminates our ultimate challenge – doing and living in embodied ways.
I have come to know that one cannot force embodiment, we are far too complex psycho-physiologically to demand that of ourselves or of others. The path to embodied experience or living is through engaging people where they are, meeting them there, and extending an invitation to hear, feel, and respond to the call of their body, and their psyche, and to listen and experience the moment in a different way. This will be very different for each of us. For some, I invite you to let go of your "critical analysis" for the time being, to let the words conjure up images and allow yourself time to feel how they sit in your body, and how you sit in your body. For others, I invite you to pause as you read, close your eyes, and notice what happens within
you. Allow your body the freedom to respond and be heard by you. Others might choose to read this in pieces, letting go of time and allowing your body to guide you in how you process the experience; by experience the invitation extends to reflecting on what is stirred or conjured up beyond what is written. If at this moment you are stymied, take Blair’s (2009) words to action, “in order to be able to doing something, one must be able to imagine it, and in order to
understand something, one must be able to imagine it” (pp. 95-96). Allow yourself a moment to imagine your body responding to what you experience as you read. Above all, my invitation to you, the reader, is to be with yourself and engage with this work in a different, more embodied way.
CHAPTER TWO
The Contexts The Ecological Context
Inquiring into the links between eco-activism, embodiment, and embodied ways of knowing is a process that extends far beyond the scope of this study. The ongoing ecological crisis cannot be solved nor understood by one perspective alone – each of us is oriented in a particular way through our worldview, our belief systems, our lived experience, our professional training and expertise, and the ways in which we gather and create knowledge. This research is oriented in this same way. Like activists, researchers have to narrow their interests and find a particular niche to focus on. I have chosen to look at embodied ways of knowing. In particular, I have located the inquiry of embodied ways of knowing in the context of women and eco-activism. The underlying dualisms pervasive in Western culture are foundational to this work as I believe that they are key barriers to embodiment and contribute to the on-going desecration of the Earth. In using the term "Western" I am referring to a global system of knowledge that seems to be dominating the world, rather than a local system of knowledge (Hawthorne, 2002). From this standpoint I have asked women eco-activists the question: How does your body inform your activism and how is it affected by it?
This chapter begins with the brief statement of the contextual situation followed by a historical contextual framework which outlines the emergence of Western knowledge practices of duality. I then offer political, sociocultural, and psychological contexts to explicate the contextual frameworks that have created, supported, and continue to maintain disembodied or fractured ways of living. I trust this needs to be explicated so as to offer a comprehensive
perspective and implications of Western living. These contexts illuminate the colonisation and practices of colonisation that render us disconnected from the very act of living in an embodied way, which I believe to be innate in all of us.
The Present Day Context
We are living in a crisis of consciousness (Tacey, 2010) – the significant issues of our time merely reflect different aspects of one crisis, a crisis Ray (2008) refers to as a “crisis of disembodiment” (p. 22). We exist in a fractured world, disembodied from ourselves and ways of knowing that are experienced in the lived world. When we take into account the implications of capitalism and the shift into left brain dominance we understand how this creates a fertile ground for disconnected or fractured life: The all-encompassing reach of capitalism combined with the over-reliance on left brain thinking creates disembodiment. When we are disembodied we don’t have access or full access to embodied ways of knowing. This is a crisis of consciousness.
Over two decades ago Joanna Macy asked, “In the face of what is happening, how do we avoid feeling overwhelmed and just giving up, turning to the many diversions and demands of our consumer societies?” (1991, p. 4). This question continues to be relevant, perhaps even more so today than in 1991. The predominant current paradigm sees
the natural world as merely a backdrop for humankind’s activities, and sees nature as a mere storehouse of ‘resources’ to be transformed into economic goods to exclusively benefit humans. Almost by definition, the paradigm does not entertain a vision of the future. (Zorrilla, 2002, p. 56)
Frighteningly, we objectify that which is around us, our physical environment, viewing it as separate from ourselves and using it as if it were a commodity (Zapf, 2005). These discourses of
separation, objectification, industrialisation, individualism, and consumerism, in combination with the decline of spiritual consciousness and practice, a disconnected existence, and left brain dominance and over-reliance, create fragmented communities and impair the ability to know, live, and make changes that take into account sustainable practices of living from a systems framework. We stand on the precarious cliff of our future. Indeed, as Gardner suggests
If one lives in a culture steeped in segmentation it is challenging to live and act holistically. Dominant Western paradigms constantly give us messages to live and act in fragmented ways. Patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, anthropocentrism, and other systems of domination disconnect us from others and ourselves. Mind, body, and spirit are continually viewed in separation; logical reason tends to preside over intuition and emotion; the separation of public and private spheres continues to be normative; humans are viewed as superior to the natural world; as a group, men continue to be privy to more social power than women; minoritized cultural groups are dealt less societal influence than Caucasian groups; and individuals are viewed as more separate than connected to one another (2005 p. 5-6).
These discourses maintain a web that imprisons us in the very way of being that threatens our existence by disconnecting us from ourselves, community, and the larger eco-system which we are a part of, and rely upon. This disconnection from nature leaves us in an alienated state (Tacey, 2010), removed from the awareness that “Nature does not need us to rule over it” (Radford Ruether, 1996, p. 330).
The Historical Context
In taking into account the fractured landscape that holds our lives we want to travel back to the Age of Enlightenment—the Age of Reason—beginning in the early to mid-sixteen
hundreds. The Age of Enlightenment introduced and championed science and intellectualism as supreme ways of knowing with the intention of reforming a society steeped in religion and spirituality. The proponents of the Enlightenment wished to evolve knowledge from the emotional and intimate ways of knowing into knowledge through science, reason, and
rationality. McGilchrist (2009), a psychiatrist who studies the ways in which the hemispheres of the brain function, claims that 15th and 16th century Europeans enjoyed a balanced functioning of their right and left hemispheres. He explains that reason which sees in context is not
problematic, rather, the Enlightenment era introduced reason that was founded on rationality and this “imposes an ‘either/or’ on life which is far from reasonable” (p. 331), and is a function of the left hemisphere. Problems arise when the left hemisphere leads rather than is informed by the right hemisphere (McGilchrist, 2009) – this reliance and dominance of the left brain translates into ways of being that create fragmentation and disembodiment.
The philosophical writings of René Descartes (1596-1650) introduced the roots of dualistic living that escorted the Enlightenment era into full force. Descartes called for a
separation between the body and mind; Michelson (1998) claims this disconnection began on the day that Descartes “severed his body from his head” (p. 217). This division co-opted rationality, reason, and objectivity as the superlative mode, attributing them to the mind. In privileging reason formed by rational thought, the body lost its legitimacy as an epistemological site (Clark, 2001): “Descartes, in short, succeeded in linking the mind/body opposition to the foundations of
knowledge itself, a link which places the mind in a position of hierarchical superiority over and above nature, including the nature of the body” (Grosz, 1994, p. 6).
This divisive and limiting worldview relegated subjectivity, emotionality, and the body to the subjugated realm of other— “the body is an absent presence, the Orientalised Other of the mind, representing the antithesis of reason and objectivity” (Chapman, 1998, p. 98). This view supported the aims of colonisation: domination, competition, control, and ownership—which eventually evolved into the aims of capitalism, then corporate capitalism, and finally into globalisation. This orientation, based on hierarchical conceptual frameworks, prejudices the superior toward abuses of power, exploitation, domination, subjugation, and sets the stage for interaction (Maioli, 2009). Cartesian philosophy also established the nature-versus-culture duality central to Western thought and philosophy today (Mack-Canty, 2004), effectively denying the epistemological stances availed from and through the body, thus rendering the body and embodied ways of knowing silent.
The Enlightenment era shepherded in the Industrial Revolution. Starting in 1750 and continuing for the next sixty to eighty years, radical changes were seen in the areas of farming and agriculture, transportation of people and goods, manufacturing, mining, and technology (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2010). These changes profoundly impacted the sociocultural, political, and economic arenas of life and greatly changed everyday living. Populations grew, commerce expanded, and there was a transition from an agrarian way of life to a mechanised, machine based workforce who flocked to the cities to find factory jobs and entered into waged labour. The world was forever changed. Economics had taken a front seat in everyday living and the fragmented life was institutionalised (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2010).
Over the 19th and 20th centuries capitalism took hold across Europe and the Western world. Private ownership, wage labour, competitive markets, the creation of goods or services for power, profit and wealth accumulation, and the on-going need for growth and development became hallmark features of capitalism, and now globalisation, and fostered further changes to the ways of everyday life. Globalisation, which emerged through the advancement of
colonialism and capitalist practices introduced in the sixteenth century (Merchant, 2005) is simply the most current phase of Western colonialist empire-building through which
militarisation and economic hegemony assert domination and jurisdiction (Radford Ruether, 2005).
Current adaptations of capitalism, corporate capitalism, or globalisation can be seen with “commodities that claim to be advancing some kind of social justice agenda, like organic foods and other such 'responsible' consumer products” (Hickel & Khan, 2012, p. 15), somehow relaying
both the mark of institutional power and signifies a public disavowal of this very power in the service of creative self-expression. This form of consumption is a way to signal one’s rejection of the mainstream. Today, dissent is a highly valued commodity that is openly bought and sold in the marketplace….It trades a deeply felt political urge
(revolution) for a passive instantiation of identity and difference (consumerism). (p. 215 parenthesis in original)
Wage slavery, exploitation, commodification of natural resources, war, corporatisation, social and class divisions, and politics, all have come to revolve around economics and capitalism in one way or another, creating a system that Hickel & Khan (2012) name as destructo-industrial production that is unsustainable. Patterson (2007) asserts “destructo-industrial technologies are
those technologies that focus on enhancing labor production with little if any regard for consequential harm to environmental sources and sinks” (p. 147). Despite the mounting evidence of these unsustainable practices and destruction to Earth and species, Hickel & Khan (2012) claim that the underlying push comes from neoliberal ideology that
has become a totalizing way of life, a worldview that furnishes the terms for everyday praxis and representation, creates its own forms of political participation and activism, and promotes a virtually unassailable notion of morality. It is not just a manipulative ploy to appropriate surplus value, but a regime in the truest sense of the term—a cultural logic that insinuates itself into every aspect of lived experience. (p. 205)
Corporate capitalism is at the forefront of neoliberal ideology and continues to colonise the bodies we live in and the very ways in which we exist. In essence, capitalism has become seen like, and worshipped like, the sun in ancient times – a prime controller of all life on Earth.
The Political Context
Hickel and Khan (2012) claim that the counterculture movement that began in the 1960s and protested the mass conformist capitalism has merely created another way for capitalism to morph. A case in point was when companies responded to this counterculture movement by creating non-conforming consumables that this demographic identified with: “To be counter-cultural, one would simply have to consume the commodities symbolically associated with counter-culture” (p. 212). The most current example of this are corporations and states that are in pursuit of being a leader in the eco-technology field while operating on the assumption that environmental issues can be handled without a fundament change in values or economic system (Patterson, 2010).
Capitalism, and the means by which capitalism produces, advances a fundamental understanding of the etiology of the current global environmental crisis: “more than any other single factor these material conditions of production have determined the patterns of justice or injustice within societies and have similarly been the principal regulators of environmental quality” (Miller, 1994, p. 79). Furthermore,
Most observers would agree that capitalism as we know it is thoroughly inept when it comes to addressing climate change and that redemption can only be found, if at all, in its capacity for transformative change towards sustainability. (Storm, 2009, p. 1017 italics in original)
Despite this, these ideological frameworks continue to grow as more and more people want the spoils of capitalism that promise redemption to those who have the most.
The underlying ideological framework of globalisation is built upon religious fundamental rhetoric and “neoclassical economic liberalism” that justify enormous discrepancies between rich and poor (Radford Ruether, 2005, p. 33). From this, globalisation, the “expansion of corporate capitalism across national boundaries” (Merchant, 2005, p. 31), has an established death grip on the world’s trajectory. After World War II the most current system of financial colonisation was implemented with the establishment of The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (and in 1995 the World Trade Organisation). These international organisations assert their global control at the expense of developing nations for the benefit of the economic North whereby through the “global system of transnational corporations…third world governments have largely lost their national sovereignty, their right or ability to pass laws to protect their own national industries or shape their own development and foreign policies” including protection of people, natural resources, and land (Radford Ruether, 2005, p. 7). Patterson (2010) aptly states: “the
environment cannot sustain capitalism and capitalism certainly cannot sustain the environment” (p. 74). We need to ask, who does this serve and what are the costs individually, collectively, and to the planet?
The Sociocultural Context
Western ways of living and knowing are entrenched in dualistic frameworks that often sever the interconnectivity of all things and create division and hierarchy within contextual and functional life. These dualistic frameworks, established and maintained by colonised discourses, have heralded rationality as the primary mode of existence (e.g., Mack-Canty, 2004; Michelson, 1996). Frameworks and discourses in Western thought are maintained and heralded as "truths" by what could be metaphorically understood as the machines of social and societal construction, namely those in power: “hegemonic culture provides structural validation for epistemologies of ignorance that reproduce existing social hierarchies” (Pascale, 2010, p. 157). These
epistemologies of ignorance have become foundational in the ways in which many societies and cultures are built, understood (and misunderstood), and operate. In fact, Davies & McGoey (2012) assert that during the financial crisis of 2007/08 the “productive mobilization of
ignorance” (p. 66) (rather than the mobilisation of knowledge) was often “the most indispensable resource throughout the crisis” (p. 65) in order to protect individuals with power and regulators or regulatory bodies. In perpetuating epistemologies of ignorance the power elites maintain their position(s) and continue to enact abuses of power and oppressive acts of domination.
Domination administers objectification, which in turn nurtures hierarchical classification exemplified in dualistic discourses (Howell, 2000).
In viewing the sociocultural context, we must identify that we are not without the influences of state regulated departments such as healthcare, policing, and education which influence the sociocultural field. Rose (1993) suggests that the state extends its power of influence not through overt methods of domination, rather via choices individuals make that are linked to bodies regulated by the state.
One of the most prevalent victories of epistemologies of ignorance is the construction and maintenance of dualistic discourses of disembodiment – the separation of mind and body. The body becomes the other to the rational mind, and intellectualism reigns supreme. This rupture leaves the door open to practices of colonisation and subjugation of peoples who fall outside of the patriarchal White male dis-embodied norm, and to assaults on the interconnectivity of all life. In its wake, mass disconnection from the body as a site of knowledge is set aside throughout our global world, particularly in, and led by, the West.
The Psychological Context
The fragmented self is at home in a disembodied state and content to rely on knowledges garnered through logic and reason. Regrettably, disembodiment and fragmentation of the self are rampant and narcissism in our North American world today is astounding – another symptom of this fractured world. Disembodiment, initially a result of fracturing, then becomes an ally to the fractured way of life. When we divide ourselves and our lives into parts we lose the
connection to the whole – we disconnect from who we truly are and we lose sight of our interconnectivity to all things. Korn (1999) reports there is a “growing social dissociation in people” and connects “dissociation from the body…to dissociation from the earth….[which] reinforces the transmission of trauma between generations” (p. 150). Our ability to resonate with
nature or live in connection with it is greatly diminished by trauma which impedes embodied functioning which grants us access or awareness to feel our rhythm and the rhythm of the Earth (Korn, 1999).
Many humans, particularly those in dense urban settings, have moved far away from our connection to the rest of the living world. Researchers indicate that social isolation is a leading issue for people in the thriving urban metropolis of Greater Vancouver (The Vancouver
Foundation, 2012). Human disconnection is a growing concern.
This fact is far more frightening than anything else we hold to be frightening (terrorist attacks, illegal aliens, “other” religions). The distancing and nihilistic separation from what is fundamental for our very existence is not just striking (in the sense logic) but suicidal (in the sense of survival). (McLean, 2006, p. 108 parenthesis in original) The fractured life opens us to be controlled – controlled by the powers that continue to exploit us, and others, for financial gain and political power. In every way we live in a fractured world. In general we don’t know where our food comes from or how it was grown, killed, or
transported; we have fifty-five friends on Facebook but social isolation is a growing concern; we recycle what is convenient, or profitable, and return the rest to the Earth as if it were separate from us – or we ship it to China, India, or other countries to disassemble (e.g. computers) and harm humans other than ourselves; and we shop as a national pastime. Our appetite for more and cheaper is voracious – this is capitalism’s charm, it lulls us into a trance, the trance of the
fractured self that believes we can buy happiness, control health and aging, and defy the laws of nature. The very nature of capitalism fractures us. We wonder, can I afford this rather than considering the implications of this purchase, such as, do I need (rather than want) this, and what are the real costs associated with my behaviour?
Consumerism, the engine of capitalism, satiates our inner emptiness and fears revolving around self-worth, all the while functioning as an impediment to sustainability and justice. In fact,
Capitalism is an attack on people’s ability to function ecologically, as organisms, by disciplining the body to behave as if it were mechanical, thereby striving to homogenize human corporeality – a project that is ultimately impossible without destroying the species. (Engel-Di Mauro, 2006, p. 71)
Capitalism is like a mutating virus — it morphs and mimics, hiding itself in plain sight until the host is weakened and cannot fight back — in this case, the consumer becomes reliant on their consumer lifestyle and feels morally right, or right enough, to continue it. The endless pull of consumerism’s promise to fill the emptiness of the fractured life is pervasive: “It is not easy to ward off the seductive temptations calling to everyone daily in a culture of excess” (hooks, 2000, p. 69). Consumerism is fostered by the "development through expansion" mindset and has become the opiate of the masses and the nemesis of sustainable living both on a human and environmental level for much of the Western world and those nations that aspire to Western lifestyles. Ostensibly, “the Western mindset of individualism and materialism has ruined the environment and destroyed community” (Zapf, 2005, p. 634), with corporations appropriating nature for profit while the costs of environmental degradation are shared among the world's citizens (Patterson, 2010).
Our disembodied selves, disconnected from Nature, are severed from the very source that affords us life. As we witness the ecological crisis it is evident that these industrialised,
connection with the guiding principle of nature, and the consciousness most of us are now encouraged to attain leaves us fundamentally alienated from the natural world as well as from our own inner natures. (Evans, 2006, p. 131)
Furthermore, by filtering the world through our thoughts and concepts we domesticate it, thereby enabling “us to own and possess it, to make it subservient to our agendas and wants” (Ray, 2008, p. 25). The severing of our interconnectivity, reflected by the on-going desecration of the Earth and its peoples, illuminates the despotic machine of domination – science and market economics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Radford Ruether, 2005). Moreover, the discourse of industrialism justifies the exploitation of nature through the use of technology on behalf of progress. While technology has availed us of significant time-saving measures, it has created on-going dependency and socially-conditioned and condoned addictions to the ever-advancing technological commodification of everyday living, and created further disconnection between self, body, and Earth. While our technological advances over the past several centuries have afforded us many gains and betterment of life, they have also cost us: “Technological man [sic] has lost his connection with the ground beneath his feet” (James, 2002, p. 3).
Cycles of Nature are still with us and within us, although we might not be aware of their presence because we can so easily override just about anything “natural” with technology and by keeping “busy”. And much technology and much “useless busyness” causes alienation from Nature and this rupture in turn leads to our wanton abuse of Earth. It is all too easy to destroy something to which we are not attached, or to abuse another being to whom we are not bonded. (Bekoff, 2003, p. 58)
The capacity which we now have to destroy, to objectify, to claim our humanity as superior to other life forms, to colonise, and to despoil all that is "other" are symptomatic of a “terrible
disease, the illness of having lost touch with our bodies” (Ray, 2008, p. 24). Hall (2009) asserts the necessity for re-establishing a sense of the natural world through “theoretical, practical, experiential and participatory” opportunities as “our collective ability to survive as a collectivity of all living beings depends on each of our species surviving in ecologically interconnected webs of life” (p. 54).
In recent decades, inquiry into embodiment and the body have resurged for feminists, poststructural scholars, and educators (e.g., Barnacle, 2009; Crowdes, 2000; Wilcox, 2009). At the same time, the body and embodiment have emerged as key areas of foci in the
interdisciplinary fields of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychiatry (Fuchs & Schlimme, 2009), and in other disciplines such as education, adult education, sociology, and anthropology (e.g., Michelson, 1998; Wilcox, 2009). Feminists in particular have engaged in the reclamation of the body and the body as a site of knowledge (Barnacle, 2009; Michelson, 1998) and in identifying ways of knowing alternate to dominant epistemological sites within the Cartesian paradigm (see Belenky et al., 1986).
Yet dualistic tendencies of body/mind split continue to prevail despite the inroads made by proponents of unity consciousness. The complex, multidimensional experience of the body, or embodiment, calls for a complex, multidimensional lens (Johnson, 2008): A comprehensive, interdisciplinary viewpoint to speak sufficiently to the various aspects of the body and brings together the fragmented self.
CHAPTER THREE
Embodiment and Embodied Ways of Knowing
This chapter provides a context or orientation by outlining the theoretical lenses and literature on embodiment and embodied ways of knowing. Chapter four will explore activism. This chapter begins with a contextual framework on embodiment, then moves to feminism and embodiment, and then I outline various dimensions of embodiment followed by a section on what I call the undivided body. Next I explore embodied learning and embodiment in education. Finally, I explore embodied ways of knowing, hence embodied epistemological sites including the body, Earth and spirit.
The Emergence of Western Knowledge Practices of Duality
For many scholars, disconnection between body and mind epitomises Western discourses and colonising practices of duality and they cite different entry points for the emergence of disembodied living (e.g., Capra, 1982; Grosz, 1994; Mack-Canty, 2004; Michelson, 1998; Ray, 2008). Sessions (1994) claims that ecocentric cultures and religions were greatly diminished with the emergence of agriculture. Ray (2008), a Buddhist academic, concurs and posits that the roots of our disembodiment are linked with the emergence of agricultural life, where our way of life shifted from hunting and gathering to an agrarian lifestyle where survival relied upon, and continues to rely upon, ongoing control of the natural world. In contrast, hunter-gatherers were intimately connected to the animate worlds of water, weather systems, seasonal cycles, and the landscape. Further, they moved within the world by following their senses, feelings and
intuition, and used myth and ritual to find connection and communion with the living, breathing Earth (Ray, 2008).
Other scholars (e.g. Capra, 1982; Grosz, 1998; Mack-Canty, 2004; Michelson, 1998) locate the roots of dualistic living within the philosophy of René Descartes. Before Descartes, knowing was a deeply intimate, connected experience, greatly informed by one’s somatic and emotional experience, and connected to nature (Clark, 2001). If we take both views – Sessions (1994) and Ray (2008) and scholars who decree the shift due to Cartesianism – as legitimate, one might imagine a radical shift from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agrarian which drastically shifted how humans lived in and through their bodies. We might also imagine, with the
introduction of a Cartesian worldview, that a further radical shift occurred where disembodiment took on a whole new meaning and experience. Descartes gifted Enlightenment-era peoples as knowing subjects, detached from their physicality and emotions, thus able to wield reason without the complications of the subjective body.
The Cartesian subject was, above all else, a thinker (Michelson, 1998). Grosz (1994) suggested that the Cartesian thinker, separate from the body, availed the body as a receptacle for cultural and societal discourses, as “the body must be regarded as a site of social, political, cultural, and geographical inscriptions, production, or constitution” (p. 23). A worldview based on binary conceptual frameworks predisposes the posited superior toward abuses of power to establish a firm hold in order to dominate, subjugate, and dictate the rules of engagement, in other words, possession or mastery as is implicit in colonialism (Maioli, 2009).
Moreover, Cartesian sensibilities paved the way for colonising practices to distort and disfigure bodies, particularly women’s bodies (Grosz, 1994). Western medicine long ago claimed its territory over the body, thereby exerting control over the right to practice medicine
(healing), and employing dualistic hierarchies to compartmentalise the individual into body parts, thus dehumanising individuals. Michelson (1998) argues that the practice of Westernised medicine was one of the institutions that vanquished the body as an epistemological site.
The victory of male institutionalized medicine over female traditions of community-based healing is one prime example of the denigration of the [female] body as a site of knowledge. (Michelson, 1998, p. 219; parenthesis in original)
Modern Western medical science continues the practice of colonisation, through its disease-related endeavours and aesthetic, cosmetic alterations, serving to appropriate the body and render the person, metaphorically, and in some cases literally, dismembered: “ plastic surgery functions as a modality of social control” (Suissa, 2008, p. 619). The discursive practices of the natural sciences, Western medical practices, and biology continue to colonise the body (Suissa, 2008). Colonial discourses use protection as the common moral justification to assert control (Maioli, 2009), thus providing the significant leeway necessary to subjugate and marginalise women and peoples of colour, supporting the denigration and containment of the female body that has contributed to the alienation and objectification of women (Grosz, 1994).
Further, widespread acceptance of practices that alter our reality or disconnect us from ourselves and therefore reality (e.g., cosmetic alterations, plastic surgery, medicated existences, recreational substance use) serve to exemplify the disconnection and dysfunction prevalent in our culture where seeking fulfillment through altering or othering our experience is common
practice. Ray (2008) contends that “There is no more telling examples of our modern
disembodiment than the way in which we use, misuse, and exploit our bodies simply as part of our modern lifestyle” (p. 29). Over the past ten millennia the ways in which human beings inhabit their bodies and live in and with the natural world have and continue to fundamentally
depart from a natural, embodied existence, which is the ancient human way, where our primary knowing comes “in and through the body” (Ray, 2008, p. 25).
Embodiment
In recent decades, inquiry into embodiment and the body have resurged for feminists, poststructural scholars, and educators (e.g., Barnacle, 2009; Crowdes, 2000; Wilcox, 2009) and is a widely debated topic in the social science literature (e.g., Johnson, 2008; Wilson, 2004). Scholars view embodiment through different lenses and speak to the varying aspects of embodiment, creating much room for interpretation and debate; they often use the terms
embodiment and body interchangeably. Over the past decade, embodiment has enjoyed a renaissance, to become a key area of focus in the interdisciplinary fields of psychology,
neuroscience, philosophy, and psychiatry (Fuchs & Schlimme, 2009), and other disciplines such as psychotherapy, education, adult education, sociology, and anthropology (e.g., Michelson, 1998; Wilcox, 2009). This research generated extensive exploration of the body as a tool of cultural and social discourses (e.g., Butler, 1993; Foucault, 1980), of the body as a site of
knowledge (e.g., Chapman, 1998; Ray, 2008; Wilson, 2004), of women’s ways of knowing (e.g. Belenky et al., 1986), and of the body as the sacred gate to spiritual life (Ray, 2008).
Regrettably, the renewal of interest across multiple disciplines has not contributed to the resolution of the mind/body discord, nor has it radically transformed the primary reliance on rationality, intellectualism, cognitive processing, and logic. Despite bold, recent attempts to investigate embodiment through various lenses or dimensions (e.g., Barnacle, 2009; Johnson, 2008; Wilson, 2004), the literature and research on embodiment still lacks a cohesive,
exist within a sociocultural context which has a complex and conflictual relationship with the body, and we continue to be most comfortable in our heads (Clark, 2001).
Despite the resurgence of interest, academic literature on embodiment is limited in its understanding of full embodiment, or perhaps it is so because academics are unable to translate their full experience of embodiment through the written word. I suspect that numerous
complications contribute to this: Academic literature written by academics who by the very nature of their roles utilise thinking to a large extent so that it is challenging to write in an academic style and at the same time write in a way that does not insist the reader favour their mind over their felt sense, feelings, senses, and intuition. Furthermore, most people are
disembodied to a large degree: van Lobel Sels (2005) illustrates this, “Outwardly, an athlete or dancer may epitomise embodied living; inwardly, however, he or she may be as unrelated – or as destructively related – to psychologically informed embodiment as” anyone else (p. 227).
Feminisms and Embodiment: The Body Re-membered
Feminists have long toiled to contest the contemptuous and pejorative standing for the body in Western thought (Barnacle, 2009; Michelson, 1998). Feminist theorists refer to this as
abstract masculinity, with the key characteristic to this approach to knowledge being that the knower takes an objective stance, detached from human experiences of emotion and connection (Michelson, 1998). This disconnection between the knower and life is rooted in dualistic, objective conjectures of positivism and reductionism. Feminism, particularly among third-wave feminists (e.g., Mack-Canty, 2004; Maioli, 2009), contested the discourses of dualism that dichotomise and create hierarchies rather than recognise the multiplicities of existence, and re-established embodiment as a focus of inquiry (Mack-Canty, 2004).
